Twelve Years a Slave

Solomon Northup

• Publisher: Dancing Unicorn Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781515414193
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Here is the harrowing true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in New York. He was kidnapped by unscrupulous slave hunters and sold into slavery where he, endured unimaginable degradation and abuse until his rescue twelve years later. A powerful and riveting condemnation of American slavery.

Table of contents

• Editor's Preface
• CHAPTER I: Introductory — Ancestry — The Northup Family — Birth and Parentage — Mintus Northup — Marriage with Anne Hampton — Good Resolutions — Champlain Canal — Rafting Excursion to Canada — Farming — The Violin — Cooking — Removal to Saratoga — Parker and Perry — Slaves — and Slavery — The Children — The Beginning of Sorrow
• CHAPTER II: The two Strangers — The Circus Company — Departure from Saratoga — Ventriloquism and Legerdemain — Journey to New York — Free Papers — Brown and Hamilton — The haste to reach the Circus — Arrival in Washington — Funeral of Harrison — The Sudden Sickness — The Torment of Thirst — The Receding Light — Insensibility — Chains and Darkness
• CHAPTER III: Painful Meditations — James H. Burch — Williams’ Slave Pen in Washington — The Lackey, Radburn — Assert my Freedom — The Anger of the Trader — The Paddle and Cat-o’-nine- tails — The Whipping — New Acquaintances — Ray, Williams, and Randall — Arrival of Little Emily and her Mother in the Pen — Maternal Sorrows — The Story of Eliza
• CHAPTER IV: Eliza’s Sorrows — Preparation to Embark — Driven Through the Street’s of Washington-Hall, Columbia — The Tomb of Washington — Clem Ray — The Breakfast on the Steamer — The Happy Birds — Aquia Creek — Fredericksburg — Arrival in Richmond — Goodin and His Slave Pen — Robert, of Cincinnati — David and His Wife — Mary and Lethe — Clem’s Return — His Subsequent Escape to Canada — The Brig Orleans — James H. Burch
• CHAPTER V: Arrival at Norfolk — Frederick and Maria — Arthur, the Freeman Appointed Steward — Jim, Cuffee, and Jenny — The Storm — Bahama Banks — The Calm — The Conspiracy — The Long Boat — The Small-Pox — Death of Robert — Manning, the Sailor — The Meeting in the Forecastle — The Letter — Arrival at New Orleans — Arthur’s Rescue — Theophilus Freeman, the Consignee — Platt — First Night in the New Orleans Slave Pen
• CHAPTER VI: Freeman’s Industry — cleanliness and Clothes — Exercising in the Show Room — The Dance — Bob, the Fiddler — Arrival of Customers — Slaves Examined — The Old Gentleman of New Orleans — Sale of David, Caroline and Lethe — Parting of Randall and Eliza — Small Pox — The Hospital — Recovery and Return to Freeman’s Slave Pen — The Purchaser of Eliza, Harry and Platt — Eliza’s Agony on Parting from Little Emily
• CHAPTER VII: The Steamboat Rodolph — Departure from New Orleans — William Ford — Arrival at Alexandria, on Red River — Resolutions — The Great Pine Woods — Wild Cattle — Martin’s Summer Residence — The Texas Road — Arrival at Master Ford’s — Rose — Mistress Ford — Sally, and Her Children — John, the Cook — Walter, Sam, and Antony — The Mills on Indian Creek — Sabbath Days — Sam’s Conversion — The Profit of Kindness — Rafting — Adam Taydem, the Little White Man — Cascalla and His Tribe — The Indian Ball — John Tibeats — The Storm Approaching
• CHAPTER VIII: Ford’s Embarrassments — The Sale to Tibeats — The Chattel Mortgage — Mistress Ford’s Plantation on Bayou Boeuf — Description of the Latter — Ford’s Brother-in-law, Peter Tanner — Meeting with Eliza — She Still Mourns for Her Children — Ford’s Overseer Chapin — Tibeat’s Abuse — The Keg of Nails — The First Fight with Tibeats — His Discomfiture and Castigation — The Attempt to Hang Me — Chapin’s Interference and Speech — Unhappy Reflections — Abrupt Departure of Tibeats, Cook and Ramsay — Lawson and the Brown Mule — Message to the Pine Woods
• CHAPTER IX: The Hot Sun — Yet Bound — The Cords Sink into My Flesh — Chapin’s Uneasiness Speculation — Rachel, and Her Cup of Water — Suffering Increases — The Happiness of Slavery — Arrival of Ford — He Cuts the Cords Which Bind Me, and Takes the Rope from My Neck — Misery — The Gathering of the Slaves in Eliza’s Cabin — Their Kindness — Rachel Repeats the Occurrences of the Day — Lawson Entertains His Companions with an Account of His Ride — Chapin’s Apprehensions of Tibeats — Hired to Peter Tanner — Peter Expounds the Scriptures — Description of the Stocks
• CHAPTER X: Return to Tibeats — Impossibility of Pleasing Him — He Attacks Me with a Hatchet — The Struggle over the Broad Axe — The Temptation to Murder Him — Escape Across the Plantation — Observations from the Fence — Tibeats Approaches, Followed by the Hounds — They Take My Track — Their Loud Yells — They Almost Overtake Me — I Reach the Water — The Hounds Confused — Moccasin Snake Alligators — Night in the “Great Pacoudrie Swamp” — The Sounds of Life — North-West Course — Emerge into the Pine Woods — The Slave and His Young Master — Arrival at Ford’s — Food and Rest
• CHAPTER XI: The Mistress’ Garden — The Crimson and Golden Fruit — Orange and Pomegranate Trees — Return to Bayou Boeuf — Master Ford’s Remarks on the Way — The Meeting with Tibeats — His Account of the Chase — Ford Censure His Brutality — Arrival at the Plantation — Astonishment of the Slaves on Seeing Me — The Anticipated Flogging — Kentucky John — Mr. Eldret, the Planter — Eldret’s Sam — Trip to the “Big Cane Brake” the Tradition of “Sutton’s Field” — Forest Trees — Gnats and Mosqultos — The Arrival of Black Women in the Big Cane — Lumber Women — Sudden Appearance of Tibeats — His Provoking Treatment — Visit to Bayou Boeuf — The Slave Pass — Southern Hospitality — The Last of Eliza — Sale to Edwin Epps
• CHAPTER XII: Personal Appearance of Epps — Epps, Drunk and Sober — A Glimpse of His History — Cotton Growing — The Mode of Ploughing and Preparing Ground — Of Planting — Of Hoeing, of Picking, of Treating Raw Hands — The Difference in Cotton Plckers — Patsey a Remarkable One — Tasked According to Ability — Beauty of a Cotton Field — The Slave’s Labors — Fear on Approaching the Ginhouse — Weighing — “Chores” — Cabin Life — The Corn Mill — The Uses of the Gourd — Fear of Oversleeping — Fear Continually — Mode of Cultivating Corn — Sweet Potatoes — Fertility of the Soil — Fattening Hogs — Preserving Bacon — Raising Cattle — Shooting-matches — Garden Products — Flowers and Verdure
• Appendix